Nicaragua – big blue Spider

Nicaragua – big blue Spider

Nicaragua – mostly known for the country on the boarder to the well traveled Costa Rica. Surprisingly many people asked me “Where exactly in Africa is this country?”. I lived in Nicaragua for about 3 months to learn spanish and study the theraphosid fauna of this country together with the local MARENA (Forestry and Wildlife Institute) and the OUMNH (Oxford University Museum of National History). The project is supervised by Dr. Stuart Longhorn

Enough said, this article is all about one of the biggest spiders living in Nicaragua. And it’s not just big, it’s blue aswell. But to be fair I have to say, the blue coloration is not the same in all specimens and it can change completely after a molt. So it really depends – we just don’t know on what.

Aphonopelma seemanni is the name of this big blue spider with nice white markings on the legs. For me one of the best looking theraphosid species worldwide. Originally described from Costa Rica, the species lives aswell in Nicaragua and Honduras. Species determination work is in progress to find out if it’s still the same species in Honduras as in Costa Rica, as it’s quite a distance between all the localites.

It’s a species who lives in holes in the ground, mostly roadside embarkments but aswell on vertical fields like agrar fields and state parks. Aphonopelma seemanni diggs it’s burrow up to 60cm deep in the ground, maybe even deeper. The digging proccess has to happen in the raining season, as during the dry season the soil is rock solid and so it’s really hard work to dig the spider out.

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Research on arachnids is still in its early phase. Due to our passion, we are conducting various fieldtrips around the world to gather specific data for arachnids, mainly Theraphosidae, for further research.